Freelance writer sues Bush biographer for plagiarism

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A freelance writer is suing biographer Kitty Kelley, claiming
the author plagiarised his work in her new book about US President
George W Bush and his family.

"I'm trying to make a living down here as a freelance writer and
these New York writers rip you off," Glynn Wilson told the
Birmingham News in Alabama.

The lawsuit was filed last month in Birmingham federal court
against Kelley and Random House Inc.

Kelley made her name by writing gossipy, unauthorised
biographies of Frank Sinatra and Nancy Reagan.

Her latest book, The Family: The Real Story of the Bush
Dynasty, was published by Doubleday, a Random House subsidiary,
on September 14.

The lawsuit asks that copies of the book not be sold while the
lawsuit is pending. More than 700,000 copies are in print.

Katherine J Trager, a senior vice president and general counsel
for Random House, told The New York Times that the lawsuit was
"meritless" and that the company was "confident that we will obtain
its dismissal."

Kelley has said four teams of lawyers had vetted her book for
libel and slander.

Wilson wrote a 4000-word article that appeared in February on an
independent journalism Web site, Southerner Daily News. The
article detailed Bush's time in Alabama when he was in the National
Guard in the early 1970s.

The $US5 million ($6.5 million) lawsuit claims that Kelley, on
pages 304 and 305 of her book, lifted passages verbatim from
Wilson's article, specifically passages about Bush's drinking and
drug use while in Alabama.

"I was surprised that so much of it was lifted so exactly,"
Wilson said.

Kelley generated buzz by writing that George W Bush used cocaine
at Camp David while his father was president.

One of Kelley's sources making the drug claim was the
president's ex-sister-in-law, Sharon Bush.

Sharon Bush later claimed she did not make any such statement,
although she has declined to take legal action.